Planting the seeds of Christmas future

By MARTY WINGATE, SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Hollies are showing their holiday spirit at Washington Park Arboretum, a prime place to see deciduous trees and shrubs in winter.
Photo: SCOTT EKLUND/P-I

Hollies are showing their holiday spirit at Washington Park...

'Red Sprite,' which grows to only 3 feet high and wide, is one of many winterberry cultivars available.

'Red Sprite,' which grows to only 3 feet high and wide, is one of...

'Argento Marginata' is a variegated cultivar of the traditional holly. It has a wide, creamy edge to each leaf. Growing your own holly decoration is very easy, and sometimes the birds will do the job for you.

"The holly and the ivy,When they are both full grown,Of all the trees that are in the wood,The holly bears the thorn."

This old English Christmas carol, written in the west country (Gloucestershire), has been carried through the years from the 17th century. It's an example of how important plants are in the celebration of the holiday.

As with other Christmas traditions, though, many of the plants connected with Christmas have a much older association. We grow many of these memory-rich plants in our gardens today.

Holly and ivy were used in pre-Christmas times as part of the winter solstice celebration; they represented the male and female figure. Of course, this was before anyone realized that holly is dioeceous -- the male flowers on one plant, and the female flowers on another. But somehow, "The holly and the holly" doesn't sound quite as good.

The holly referred to here is Ilex aquifolium, a tree both loved and hated in the Puget Sound region. It is a borderline pest, infiltrating our natural landscapes. It also is a firmly established garden tree, with dozens of cultivars that accentuate foliage or fruit. And it is a cherished holiday decoration, the spiny-tipped leaves and plump red berries practically shouting Dickens.

Growing your own holly decoration is exceedingly easy (sometimes the birds plant one for you). But you don't have to stick with the traditional holly -- that is, the straight species, Ilex aquifolium. Instead, you can choose a variegated cultivar, such as 'Argento Marginata,' which has a wide, creamy edge to each leaf, or 'Gold Coast,' which has yellow edges.

A hybrid, I. x altaclarensis has a handsome look: the same regular, conical form, the same glossy leaves, but usually much less spiny. It can be a large tree (up to 40 feet high), and, as with English holly, comes in male and female forms. If you want berries, you must have a female plant, but be sure there is a male plant in the vicinity for pollination.

But perhaps you would like to deviate from tradition -- you want holly, but not English holly. Your choice just got larger. You could grow a possumhaw (I. decidua), yaupon (I. vomitoria) or winterberry (I. verticillata). These North American natives can provide decorations in place of English holly.

The first two are deciduous shrubs, and in the landscape, the berries on bare branches form a cheery red cloud. I. verticillata 'Red Sprite,' which grows to only 3 feet high and wide, is one of many winterberry cultivars available; I. decidua 'Pocahontas' grows about twice as large.

Yaupon holly is a small evergreen tree. My mother, who grew up in southwest Arkansas, remembers that they usually had a yaupon holly for the Christmas tree at home, because they were plentiful in the surrounding countryside, and that the community brought in a longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) from across the Red River.

Ivy is less associated with Christmas decorations these days, but if you prefer to stick to the lyrics, avoid planting the straight species (Hedera helix) or one of its four cultivars, all of which are listed by the state Noxious Weed Control Board.

Plant 'Goldheart,' which has a large, bright-yellow center to each leaf. Plant it in an indoor or outdoor container for real peace of mind (I have seen 'Goldheart' engulf a large snag at the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden in Vancouver).

Or plant the intergeneric hybrid (between English ivy and the evergreen shrub Fatsia japonica) xFatshedera lizei 'Media-Picta.' It is half-shrub and halfhearted climber with a yellow center to each lobed leaf.

Many legends are associated with the use of a fir tree to celebrate the winter holiday of Christmas, and before that, the solstice. But the most recent story of how these trees came indoors to be bedecked with baubles dates from Victorian times, when Prince Albert introduced this German tradition at Windsor Castle.

Nowadays, we have broadened the fir-tree tradition (probably silver fir in Germany) to include garden-worthy trees such as noble firs, grand firs and, of course, a well-known Seattle tradition, the Chubby & Tubby Douglas fir.

There are other traditional plants for Christmas that are lesser known than these mentioned, and they all make fine garden plants. Rosemary is associated with Mary and Joseph's flight to Egypt, and one story describes Mary washing her cloak and drying it on a rosemary bush (and so changing the rosemary's flowers forever from white to blue).

The branches of cherry laurel (also known as English laurel, botanically Prunus laurocerasus) have long been used in Britain for decorating shopfront windows. Its clean, glossy, evergreen foliage is useful for indoor decor, and there are certainly plenty of laurel hedges around here; if you don't have one, ask to snip a bit from a neighbor (or try a Northwest substitute -- salal).

An ancient plant used in pre-Christian times and still handy today is yew, Taxus baccata. At the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in Britain, signage explains that Druids thought yew was sacred, and planted it near their temples. As Christianity spread, churches were built on the same sites, and so the belief in the importance of the plant was transferred.

We grow yew as hedges, and therefore seldom see how large and impressive a tree it can become -- up to 85 feet! If you take branches of yew into the house for decoration, remember that (just like holly) the fruit is poisonous to humans; perhaps you'd rather leave the plants outdoors, and enjoy watching the birds consume a post-Christmas feast.